Australian Stamps Tell Its History, Part 1 (From STAMPS Magazine, December 1, 1951, with Images Added)
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On the pages that follow we are pleased to present a selection of articles on Australia and Australian States that have appeared in Mekeel’s & STAMPS Magazine or StampNewsOnline.net Yesterday in STAMPS: Australian Stamps Tell its History, Part 1 (From STAMPS Magazine, December 1, 1951, with images added) In this, Australia’s Jubilee Year, it is interesting to review some General Post Office and the Town Hall on North Terrace, and an of the nation’s history as depicted on its postage stamps. overhead display of agricultural products indigenous to South Commonwealth of AustraIia stamps have been issued since Australia. 1913. There are groups representing the Royal Family, figures in The 100th anniversary of the first Australian history, and commemorating national events and special successful voyage down great Murray anniversaries. Others have related to Australia’s war efforts, its place River, to its mouth at Lake Alexandrina, in the aviation, and to its aboriginal and wild life. South Australia, from Gundagai, New Three of Australia’s six South Wales, was celebrated by 1-1/2d States have already celebrated and 3d stamps, released in June 1930. with special stamps the 100 anni- The designs feature an oil painting by versary of their establishment. In J. H. Crossland, then hanging in the September 1929 Western Austra- Adelaide Art Gallery, of Captain (later lia, originally called “The Swan Sir) Charles Sturt (1795-1869) who River Settlement,” produced a undertook the thirty-three-day voy- Australia Sc. 105 1-1/2d stamp for the occasion. age by whaleboat down the Murray, The motif is a Black Swan, the Australia’s longest waterway (1,520 miles). Native spears, shields Australia Sc. 103 emblem of Western Australia, and and a boomerang, weapons used by the River Murray aboriginals the designer was G. P. Morrison, Curator of the National Gallery, who befriended the exploration party on its journey to solve the Perth. Swan River, on which Perth, the State capital, is situated, was riddle of the Western rivers, flank Sturt’s likeness. Lyre bird tail discovered in 1697 by the Dutchman de Vlaming, who recorded for feathers also appear. the first time the existence of black swans. Suggestion for the stamp issue was made by the Royal Austra- Western Australia has an area of 975,920 square miles, is the lian Historical Society in Victoria. largest of the States, and was founded near Perth in June 1929 by The death in 1834 of the pioneer and accepted “father” of the Captain C. H. Fremantle. Australian wool industry, now based on more than 120 million In October 1934 three stamps sheep, 80 per cent of which are merinos, was recalled by three (2d, 3d, and 1/-, Sc. 142-144) stamps printed in November 1934. The pioneer was Captain John were distributed to commemorate Macarthur (1767- 1834), who arrived in Australia in 1790 with the the centenary of the settlement of New South Wales Corps, and was one of the first military officers Victoria, first known as the Port to take up farming. In 1797 he imported some Spanish merino Phillip District. The stamps show sheep from the Cape of Good Hope and from the stock of King a member of the now extinct George III. Yarra Yarra tribe of aboriginals The first bale of wool export- looking in wonder across the Australia Sc. 144 ed overseas by Macarthur sold at River Yarra at the distant skyline 10/4 [10 shillings / 6 pence] a lb. of Melbourne, Australia’s largest city, and the State capital. in 1807. On these stamps (2d, 3d The first white settlers of Victoria were the Henty Brothers, and 9d, Sc. 147-149) a champion who established a whaling station at Portland Bay in November merino ram, sold in 1934 for 1834. £6,000, takes pride of place. The Melbourne, named after Vis- animal is shown against the Blue count Melbourne, the then Prime Mountains at Camden on the Australia Sc. 147 Minister of England, was founded Nepean River, New South Wales, in 1835 by John Batman. Pictures the site of Macarthur’s 5,000 acre estate. Macarthur was a notable of Adelaide, capital of South Aus- figure in the politics of the then colony. tralia, as a tent-town of 1836, and The exploration of Central as a city a century later, figure on Queensland by Lieut. Col. Sir three additional Centenary stamps Australia Sc. 160 Thomas Mitchell in 1846 was the (2d, 3d and 1/-), Sc. 159-161. To occasion for commemoration in commemorate the foundation of South Australia as “a Province of October 1946 by 2-1/2d, 3-1/2d the Crown,” by Captain John Hindmarsh, R.N., in December 1836 and 1/- stamps, Sc. 203-205. the stamps appeared in August 1936. The Proclamation ceremony Assistance in the preparation was staged beneath an arched gum (eucalyptus) tree at Glenelg, a of the series was given by the seaside resort six miles from Adelaide. This “Proclamation Tree” is Queensland Historical Society. the central design of the stamps. Also in the picture is the Adelaide The motif is a central portrait of Australia Sc. 203 Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) against a map of Queensland, and the discovery with some merino sheep at the left and cattle at the right. of gold in payable Mitchell, explorer, Surveyor-General, soldier and writer, quantities by Ed- materially assisted by his 1846 journey in opening up Central ward Hargraves, at Queensland. Bathurst, N.S.W. In Janu- The stamps ary 1850 the were made avail- Colony of able in July 1951. New South The design of the Wales and former was from Australia Sc. 244-245 “Port Phil- a bronze plaque lip District” executed in 1853 by Thomas Woolner, R.A., and depicted Charles introduced Joseph Latrobe (1801-1875). He was in command of the “Port a d h e s i v e Phillip District,” from 1839 until July 1851, when the District (till stamps, with then governed from N.S.W.) gained its independence. New South Wales Sc. 1 t h e c l a s - Victoria Sc. 1 The title of “ Victoria” was then assumed, and Latrobe became sic “Sydney its first Lieutenant-Governor. Victoria has an area of 87,884 square View” and the celebrated “Half Length” renderings. These bear miles. Latrobe established during his office the Melbourne Hospital, respectively a view of Sydney in 1788, with convicts being released Public Library, University, and Benevolent Asylum. at Sydney Cove by “Industry”; and a fine half-length study of Queen The illustration of Edward Hargraves (1816-1891), was taken Victoria enthroned, and holding the sceptre and orb. from a portrait included in his work “Australia and its Goldfields, The engraver of the Victorian issue was T. Ham of Melbourne. 1855.” A pick and shovel, and gold mining tools, flank the portrait. The “Sydney View” was by R. Clayton, of Sydney, who adapted it Hargraves, after a visit to America, noticed a similarity at Bathurst, from the Great Seal of N.S.W., prepared by English potter, Josiah where he had pastoral holdings, to the gold-bearing areas of the Wedgwood, and which arrived in Sydney in 1791. United States. His discovery of gold in payable quantities at Sum- In September mer Hill Creek in February 1851 won him world distinction and 1950 the first of the a pension of £250 for life, from 1877. Nowadays Australia is still Commonwealth’s producing gold, and holds fifth place in production. The State of enjoined, or “se- Western Australia has the highest Australian yield. tenant” stamps, both 2-1/2d in val- ue (Sc. 228-229), appeared to mark the centenary of the two initial is- sues, and carry Australia Sc. 228-229 representations, slightly amended, of the N.S.W. and Victorian designs. Recent centenary commemorative issues are the se-tenant 3d pair heralding the attainment of responsible government in Victoria, Yesterday in STAMPS: Australian Stamps Tell its History, Part 2 (From STAMPS Magazine, December 15, 1951, with images added) Sydney and Newcastle are represented in a Sesquicentenary called it the “Stamp of the Year.” It series of Australia, circulated in October 1937 and September 1947. carries a picture of a mounted post- The former was in 2d, 3d and 9d, and the latter in 2-1/2d, 3-1/2d and man in an outback area, watching a 5-1/2d denominations. Convair airliner passing overhead. Captain Arthur Phillip (1738- It demonstrates two mail-carrying 1814), of the Royal Navy, and methods in Australia, and is from N.S.W.’s first Governor from 1788 to a drawing provided by the Director 1792, appears on the original issue of of the National Gallery, Victoria, Australia 223 January 23, 1788. He is shown tasting Daryl Lindsay. the waters of the Tank Stream, at Syd- Membership in the U.P.U., as most collectors know, gives member ney Cove in company with his officers countries’ mail the right of way, and provides that it will not be subjected Australia 165 of the First Fleet (11 vessels), before to delay or interference. deciding on the site of the future Colony for his 1,000 souls. Four designs in a series produced in May 1951 mark the fiftieth The design is from a painting executed in 1926 by the Australian anniversary of the establishment of the Australian Commonwealth. artist John Alcott, well known for his water colors. Some of the First One of these (3d) shows a characteristic portrait of the bearded Sir Fleet vessels appear in the background, and a number of gum trees at Henry Parkes (1815-1896), five times Premier of N.S.W., the “Father the right.